By Brown                                              S.B. No. 1009
       74R1426 PB-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the sanctions for acting as a life insurance counselor
    1-3  without a license or violating certain laws applicable to life
    1-4  insurance counselors; providing a criminal penalty.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Section 7, Chapter 29, Acts of the 54th
    1-7  Legislature, Regular Session, 1955 (Article 21.07-2, Vernon's Texas
    1-8  Insurance Code), is amended to read as follows:
    1-9        Sec. 7.  (a)  A person commits an offense if the person acts
   1-10  as a life insurance counselor without a license issued under this
   1-11  Act or otherwise violates this Act.  Each violation constitutes a
   1-12  separate offense.  An offense under this subsection is a Class B
   1-13  misdemeanor.
   1-14        (b)  In addition to being subject to the penalty imposed
   1-15  under Subsection (a) of this section, a person who commits a
   1-16  violation of this Act is subject to license revocation under
   1-17  Section 5, Article 21.01-2, Insurance Code.  If the department
   1-18  revokes the license, the license holder is not eligible for a new
   1-19  license for two years after the effective date of the license
   1-20  revocation.  <Any person who shall act as a Life Insurance
   1-21  Counselor, as defined herein, without having first obtained a
   1-22  license as herein provided, or who violates any of the provisions
   1-23  of this Act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction,
   1-24  shall be fined not more than Five Hundred Dollars ($500), or
    2-1  imprisoned not more than six months, or both, each such violation
    2-2  being a separate offense hereunder.  In addition, if such offender
    2-3  holds a license hereunder, such license shall automatically expire
    2-4  upon such conviction and the offender shall be barred from license
    2-5  for a period of at least two (2) years.>
    2-6        SECTION 2.  (a)  Section 7, Chapter 29, Acts of the 54th
    2-7  Legislature, Regular Session, 1955 (Article 21.07-2, Vernon's Texas
    2-8  Insurance Code), as amended by Section 1 of this Act, applies only
    2-9  to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act.
   2-10  For purposes of this section, an offense is committed before the
   2-11  effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurs
   2-12  before that date.
   2-13        (b)  An offense committed before the effective date of this
   2-14  Act is governed by the law in effect when the offense was
   2-15  committed, and the former law is continued in effect for that
   2-16  purpose.
   2-17        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-18  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-19  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-20  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-21  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.